Michael Mundy said he knew
something wasn’t right when he
pulled his car to a stop behind
the O’Charley’s restaurant on the
Parkway in Pigeon Forge. Jan.
27 for what he said was an illegal
drug deal that turned into an
armed robbery and almost cost
him his life.

“It just didn’t feel right,” he
said during a preliminary hearing Friday for the three people
charged with attempted especially aggravated robbery in relation
to the incident.
There was only one other car
in the parking lot, for one thing,
and the restaurant appeared to
be closed. Still, he turned off the
ignition of his car when Amanda
Abrams — whom he said arranged

By DEREK HODGES
Staff Writer

Native American
musician performs
for Walters State
Local, Page A2

State

Election-year
side effect

the window and demanded he
open the door, but Mundy said
as soon as he saw the man he
turned on the engine and locked
the door.
“I put the vehicle in drive, and
that’s the last thing I remember,”
he said.
As it turned out, that’s because
he’d been shot in the back of the
See Shooting, Page A4

Incentives ‘Spur’ work
Rockslide repairs ahead
of schedule so far

5Going back
to his roots

the transaction — told him the
buyer was finishing work inside
the restaurant and would be out
shortly.
Mundy was there to sell 20 pills
of Oxycontin, the powerful prescription painkiller that is used
illicitly has a narcotic.
Not long after that, he said, Lee
Franklin Morton charged from
some nearby woods brandishing
a handgun. Morton banged on

PIGEON FORGE — Crews working on
clearing up and stabilizing the area of a
Jan. 25 rockslide are running far ahead
of schedule so far, but officials haven’t yet
set a new completion date as they keep a
leery eye on the weather.
The contractors at the site have already
cleared the debris and installed a retaining wall to support the hillside that collapsed into the southbound lanes of the
Spur just beyond the Pigeon Forge city
limits. While it seems likely they’ll beat
both the March 12 deadline to open both
lanes of traffic and the April 30 mark for
wrapping all work on the project, they’re
not yet confident enough to say that’s a
certain.
“The work has gone well. We’ve been

working a lot of hours,” project superintendent Dale Dockery said Thursday.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to
wrap it up early.”
Already the workers,
who have spent 15 to 18
hour shifts at the site
under the emergency contract given to Sevierville’s
Charles Blalock & Sons
Construction, have cleared
the debris, stabilized the
Dockery
rock face and built a 115foot long, 20-foot high retaining wall.
Behind that fortification they have filled
the gap between the earth and the woodand-metal barrier with jagged-cut rock.
On Friday’s chilly morning, crews were
using propane heaters to raise the temperature of the air around the rocks to at
least 35 degrees, the minimum temperature required for pouring cement, which
will fill in the gaps between the stone and
further reinforce the wall. The heating
Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press
effort is another sign of just how hard Crews use propane heaters to raise the temperature of the air around the rocks above the
See Spur, Page A4
retaining wall to be able to pour cement.

Crews, using jagged rock and cement, fill in behind the retaining wall along the Spur.

Walker grateful for
‘Idol’ experience

Briscoe case
headed to
grand jury

By ELLEN BROWN
Staff Writer
Sevierville police officer Bryan Walker is still trying to wrap his head around becoming an overnight
celebrity.
If you’re an “American Idol” fan — and by now, even
if you’re not — you’ve probably heard that the Sevier
County resident was a finalist on the hit TV show. He
was in living rooms across the country every Tuesday
and Wednesday night from January until last week,
when the finalists were narrowed to 24 singers.
“The whole experience was mind-boggling,” he said.
“I knew it had the possibility to be that big — but I
didn’t know it would get that big that quick.”
Walker had actually worked full-time as a gospel singer before he joined the Sevierville Police
Department, wanting a job that wouldn’t require him
to be on the road all the time.
He credits his parents and a friend for encouraging
him to audition for “American Idol” last summer.
See Walker, Page A4

By JEFF FARRELL
Staff Writer

Submitted

Bryan Walker auditions for “American Idol”
in Atlanta.

SEVIERVILLE — A former University of Tennessee
wide receiver and Pigeon
Forge coach waived his
preliminary hearing Friday
on charges he sent an inappropriate text to a Pigeon
Forge High School student
while he was coaching at
the school.
Josh Briscoe appeared
briefly in general sessions
court as his attorney, Joe
Baker, told Judge Dwight
Stokes they would waive
the hearing. That means the
charges against Briscoe will
See Briscoe, Page A4

A2 â&#x2014;&#x2020; Local

The Mountain Press â&#x2014;&#x2020; Saturday, February 27, 2010

Financial aid
available for fall
Submitted Report

Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press

Native American musician Arvel Bird educates and entertains students, faculty and visitors with
his blend of Native American/ Celtic music during a performance at WSCC.

Native American musician performs
By ELLEN BROWN
Staff Writer
Native American musician Arvel Bird performed
at Walters State Community
College Wednesday, an
event sponsored by the
collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International Fee
Oversight Committee.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arvel is one of many
musicians that has visited our campus over the
past couple of years,â&#x20AC;? said
Eileen Bowers, WSCC international educational specialist. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had groups
from Zambia and Nigeria,
and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also had a lot of
academic speakers. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an
initiative to make students
more aware of the global
society we live in, to help
them understand the world
outside of East Tennessee.
Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great to have the community here, too.â&#x20AC;?
Bird is a classically-trained
violinist who was born in
Idaho and raised in Utah
and Arizona. He developed
an interest in both his Native
American Paiute heritage
and Appalachian and bluegrass music, and later developed his own music style
and a loyal following when
he settled in Fort Wayne,
Ind. He has toured with
Glenn Campbell, Loretta
Lynn, Louise Mandrell, Clay
Walker and other performing artists, as well as record-

Submitted

Bird was accompanied by Native American dancers.
ed his own music with the
violin as lead instrument.
According to his Web site
(www.arvelbird.com), his
Celtic and Native American
roots are â&#x20AC;&#x153;intricately woven
into his songs.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love to play at colleges,â&#x20AC;? Bird said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I do is
entertainment, and I like to
teach the history of Native
American heroes, fiddling
and spirituality. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
become interested in my
heritage until I was an adult
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as a youth, I was concerned with blending in. I
had heard about the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;power
and medicine within,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but

I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have it. I started
reading Deepak Chopra and
Abraham Hicks...and realized it was all about walking in balance and harmony
with all living things.â&#x20AC;?
His latest album, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ride
Indian Ride,â&#x20AC;? is a departure from his more traditional cultural music, â&#x20AC;&#x153;with
an edgier blues/rock sound
that blends his Native
American/Celtic roots with
a stronger, more soulful
sound,â&#x20AC;? according to his
Web site.
In WSCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Conner-Short
Center, he shared the history of his heritage in between

Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press

performances, which were
also accompanied by dancers in Native American costumes.
Sevierville
residents
Charlene Sargent and Judy
Clark were happy that they
took the time to attend the
performance.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was beautiful, absolutely stunning,â&#x20AC;? Sargent
said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And I learned a lot
through his stories.â&#x20AC;?
For more information
on WSCCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international
events, visit www.ws.edu.

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of a schedule II substance
and a misdemeanor warrant from general sessions
court. He was being held in
lieu of $60,000 bond.
u Michael Lee Miller, 36,
of Gatlinburg, was charged
Feb. 25 with vandalism. He
was released.
u Aimee J. Ogden, 34,
of 228 Summer Meadow
Apt. 21 in Sevierville,
was charged Feb. 26 with
worthless checks. She was
released.
u Charles Lucky Pierce,
33, of 2079 Maple Branch
Road in Sevierville, was
charged Feb. 26 with a
misdemeanor warrant from
general sessions court. He

was being held.
u Bahman PlaseyedFarrokhza, 26, of 2546
Big River Overlook in
Sevierville, was charged
Feb. 26 with DUI and driving on a suspended license.
He was released on $2,500
bond.
u Fred Arthur Poston, 27,
of Dandridge, was charged
Feb. 25 with theft: credit
card $500 to $1,000. He
was being held in lieu of
$2,500 bond.
u Kelly Denton Rayfield,
20, of 416 Eastgatge Road
in Sevierville, was charged
Feb. 26 with a misdemeanor warrant from general sessions court. He was

Matthew Hunter, associate director of financial aid at Walters State Community College,
meets with student Amy Johnson. Hunter
encourages students planning to enter college
this fall to apply for financial aid and scholarships now.

A rre s t s
Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: The following information was taken
from the intake reports at
the Sevier County Jail. All
people listed within this
report are presumed innocent unless proven guilty
in a court of law.
u Danny Joe Adams, 44,
of 4354 Bruce Ogle Way in
Pigeon Forge, was charged
Feb. 25 with violation of
probation. He was released
on $3,500 bond.
u Jeffrey Lee Blackwell,
33, of Pamplico, S.C., was
charged Feb. 25 with being
a fugitive from justice. He
was being held.
u Tracy Diane Blackwell,
32, of Pamplico, S.C., was
charged Feb. 25 with being
a fugitive from justice. She
was being held.
u Jamie Lee Carr, 21,
of Newport, was charged
Feb. 25 with driving on a
suspended license. He was
released on $500 bond.
u Gary Lee Hamm, 53,
of 932 Sycamore Drive in
Sevierville, was charged
Feb. 26 with allowing dogs
to roam at large. He was
released.
u Molly Amanda Howard,
33, of 2330 Jones Cove
Road in Sevierville, was
charged Feb. 26 with theft.
She was released on $250
bond.
u Loyd McGraw, 44, of
202 Harden Lane Apt. 42
in Sevierville, was charged
Feb. 25 with possession

Interested in attending
Walters State in the fall?
Financial aid administrators are encouraging prospective students
to complete the Free
Application for Federal
Financial Aid Assistance
(FAFSA) now in order to
receive financial aid by
the time fall semester
starts in August.
While the FAFSA
determines need-based
aid from federal and
state sources, Walters
State is now accepting
applications for scholarships.
Applications
are available online at
www.ws.edu. (Click the
Financial Aid link on the
main page, then WSCC
Scholarships.)
The deadline to apply is
March 15.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;If someone is considering college, I encourage them to go ahead
and fill out the FAFSA.
Additionally, they should
also apply for the Walters

State scholarships,â&#x20AC;? said
Matthew Hunter, associate director of financial
aid at Walters State, said.
For scholarships, students should also be planning to attend full-time.
Preference is given to
applicants in the Walters
State service area, which
includes Sevier, Cocke
and Jefferson counties.
Applying for the scholarship is free and receiving one does not commit
a student to attending
Walters State.
Award decisions are
made in May.
The FAFSA also serves
as an application for the
Tennessee Hope Lottery
Scholarship. Other common forms of aid determined by the FAFSA are
Pell grants.
Hunter said that the
best way to complete the
FAFSA is online at www.
fafsa.ed.gov.
For more information,
contact the Financial Aid
Office at (423) 585-6811
or visit the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Web
site at www.ws.edu.